It had been three days of relative peace since Cham had woken up in her new surroundings, and despite the dull ache of loss in her heart she had found her spirits rising every day. The company was excellent and Rosalyn was safe for the time being. After a long conversation that had lasted much into the night after Cham had first woken, Serena had offered to take any letters or reports that she needed delivered and left with a sealed missive to the Abbess explaining what had happened with the lich and how they had been unable to stop the second attacker from snatching the phylactery from the carnage after the end of the battle. Cham was as descriptive as was able to be about her assailant, describing her odd manner of dress as well as the other… less pleasant aspects of her appearance under the facade.

Something in the back of her mind made her hesitate to bring up the creature’s interest and seeming weakness in the mysterious arm that she had received from the Abbess, but after glancing down at the now indistinguishable from flesh metal of the gauntlet and running the fingers of her other hand across the barely perceptible seam between it and the remainder of her arm she decided to be as transparent as possible in the matters involving the loss of the phylactery to the forces of the cult. She did however, edit out the parts that involved Serena and Rosalyn’s new circumstances.

A brief conversation with the dragoness about why there were no other dragons had made that decision for her. Cham did not like leaving out details in her report, but the thought of some mage slicing up Rosalyn for magical reagents sickened her. She had also imposed on her host to take a letter to one of the postmaster stations for Janie, who was probably entirely in the dark about the deaths of the others. The dull ache in her chest flared up at the thought of all the children she had failed once again, and suddenly she felt like she had to be anywhere but in this room. Cham reached for the small cane that one of the kobolds had produced out of seemingly nowhere when she had fallen trying to get to the bathroom earlier that day and levered herself out of the bed.

Cham smiled to herself as she thought of the surprisingly jovial company of the kobold tribe who had been attending to her for the last few days. In a lot of ways they did not match what she had heard of about their kind, but then neither did the image that the dozens of crushed and destroyed undead they fought in a terrifyingly effective guerilla battle. Cham was incredibly grateful that she had come into the cave after the little creatures had already made their retreat further into the caves.

Hobbling to the front door of the her room, Cham headed out the front door of the cottage and around the back of the building to balefully eye the stairs down to where Rosalyn currently resided in the mysterious silver egg. Cham was panting and leaning much more heavily on the cane that she had initially had to, and she glumly decided that she wasn’t strong enough to climb the stairs down to visit the egg chamber. She figured that she could probably get some of the kobolds to help, but there was a significant language barrier between them as only a handful of them actually spoke common.

Her head slumping in defeat, but still not wanting to go back to her room on such a beautiful day, Cham instead diverted her unsteady wobble to the small shed where the younger kobolds were playing around where the rope swing was located. Something about children at play had always calmed the dark spots in Cham’s heart, and was a large part of the reason she had stepped away from her role as Justicar after the war, despite being the youngest Sister to ever receive the title. She had seen too much and even to this day the nightmares would keep her up some nights.

Finding a rough wooden bench under the shade of the shed wall, she sat and contentedly watched the silly creatures roll and tumble across the verdant grass of the yard as they chittered to each other and reenacted some battle between a hero and a group of bad guys. Cham idly wondered what kind of heroes kobolds would pretend to be when one of the little creatures, a female with an orange and green coloration, flapped her arms like a pair of wings and then pretended to blow something out of her mouth while all the other kobolds dramatically fell over in overly dramatic death poses. Cham laughed out loud as she immediately got the answer to her unspoken question.

The sudden noise of her laughter caught the oblivious younglings off guard and they scattered in a panic, which only made Cham laugh all the harder for some reason. She smiled broadly as one of the younglings, the female who was pretending to be a dragon, cautiously eyed her from behind the thick trunk of the nearby tree. Her eyes lighting up in recognition she ran over and started chittering unintelligibly at Cham. Cham watched her with interest while she gestured wildly at herself, Cham, the tree, and seemingly everything in range before shaking her head and speaking softly, “I am afraid that I do not understand you little one. However, I do appear to have bit of an open schedule for the foreseeable future. Maybe we could change that? You can address me as Mother Cham.”

Seeing the puzzled look on her face Cham pointed at herself and repeated, “Mother Cham.” The young kobold’s eyes lit up with understanding and she replied “Other Cha!” Spinning around a full 180 so fast that she almost lost her balance, the young kobold raised both hands above her hand and starting running around in circles while chanting “Other Cha! Other Cha! Other Cha!”

After a few revolutions the other younglings fell in behind her and they too took up the chant as their circle migrated to revolve around Cham and the bench she was sitting on. Letting out a sigh Cham smiled as she said, “Well, at least they are enthusiastic.”

"Enthustic! Other Cha!"

Serena had really enjoyed the flight to deliver the letters for Cham. Despite her new found freedom she had not really had a chance to stretch her wings out and really soar through the sky. Flying was the thing that she had missed the most during her captivity, and she gleefully spun through the air doing loop-de-loops and dive bombing targets that only she could see as she invisibly soared through the sky.

Sure, she was a little worried about leaving everyone alone, but knew that she was being overly protective. Not only were the kobolds watching for intruders, but Serena herself had placed a powerful barrier around the cottage which protected them from prying eyes. Unless you knew they were there, you would probably never find it. She would only be gone for two days and could be back very quickly in the event of a crisis, so she had little actual grounded fear for the safety of everyone. Besides, she was eager to get back to the nearby human city and look around some more as she had things that she wanted to buy if she could.

The humans that she remembered where much more nomadic and were just only starting to build cities and establish kingdoms. They had certainly accomplished a lot in the last century, and she was suitably impressed. Even if the progress was built on the corpses of thousands of dragons, she still recognized the work it must have taken to tame the land like they did. Serena had not seen a single large flying predatory animal on the trip at all. She remembered rocs in particular being a very large threat for the humans a century ago.

After she had gathered the kobolds from the cavern and secured her egg and Cham in a safe location she had flown southwest to the site of her former home. She found a blighted and tainted place unfit for life, and it hurt her somewhere deep. She had known everyone was dead, as her position of authority gave her some 'sense' of her subjects, but now she had seen the total devastation with her own eyes the last embers of a hope she hadn’t dared express had died. Both her subjects and the land they called home were dead. Even a century later the destruction was absolute and heartbreaking.

So she had gathered her charges and they had ventured north to where Serena could feel the most ambient mana. High concentrations would be beneficial for Rosalyn both during and after her time inside of the egg and it would just be more comfortable for them to live in such an area. Serena was a bit worried when she had ventured into the nearby human city and found out that this area was also considered 'blighted' in a way as well and that it was known as Wizard’s Folly. Her worries eased a little when she found out that the large amount of ambient mana was what they considered the blight. Apparently some foolish mage did something stupid and changed this land in a fundamental way and it now pooled mana and many strange phenomena occured.

Now plants and animals would mutate into monsters randomly which, along with the fallout from the war a decade previous, pretty much had forced most of the civilian population to retreat from the region. Now the vast majority of the residents were active adventurers who would venture out into the mana tainted caves and forests looking for rare plants and monster parts to export to the rest of the continent. Their operations were centered on the only remaining major city in the area, Folly’s Spite.

Folly’s Spite was a fortress city of impressive size situated on the coast, built to withstand the regular attacks from the aggressive flora and fauna. Spite, as it was colloquially known by the residents, was also the location of the Adventuring Guild Headquarters, and most of the people who took up residence in the city were either active adventurers or in some form of vocation that supported adventuring. Serena was impressed at the selection of goods and equipment in the local bazaar and had been able to purchase everything they had needed to convert the crumbling stone towner they had found on that lonely cliff into their new home. She had also been pleasantly surprised to find that the people were also both friendly and honest during her visit and she was looking forward to another.

Spotting the city walls from her vantage point in the sky, Serena landed in a clearing that she had marked on her previous trip and condensed the mana of her form to her preferred human shape as to not spook the locals. Sure, she had not seen anyone that would be a major threat to her on her previous trip to get building materials for their new home, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to announce that yes, there was a dragon in the area. That sounded like asking for trouble to Serena. Pulling a both an easy to discard sundress and a large purse from her extra-dimensional pocket, she quickly got dressed and slung her bag over her shoulder. It had been a pain during her last visit to discreetly pull things out of her pocket and she had thought to bring a bag along this time to help disguise whenever she pulled out money or stored something away. Stepping onto the road she started walking towards the city gates.

Thankfully, she did not have to walk far before a friendly adventuring group pulled up beside her and offered her a ride on their wagon. They were even kind enough to give directions to the postmaster and she was able to deliver the letters in short order. Her promised task done much sooner than anticipated, Serena smiled at the prospect of getting some shopping in before the local bazaar closed for the night curfew.

Nodding her head in satisfaction Serena walked towards the bazaar area as she adjusted the heavy canvas purse on her shoulder, never noticing the pair of hungry eyes that watched her go.

Serena was giddy as she had never seen so many mana potions in one place. A century ago they were obscenely rare, to the point where Serena, a literal queen, had only ever owned three. Serena’s eyes sparkled as she carefully looked at the blue liquid through the glass vial it was in, she had to stop her mouth from watering as she could smell the mana distilled down into the potion. With access to these she could cut down the time it took to shape another egg in half!

Watching her compare the various vials from the other side of his table and elderly gentleman piped up as she laid an entire flat of the most potent potions the vendor had to sell on “You have a good eye my dear! Those potions were brewed this morning by my wife, and I can guarantee at least 10% more potency compared to the swill that the Alchemist Association sells. Since you are buying so many I can give you a discount as well! Most people only buy one or two since mana potions are usually deemed a luxury, you must have a lot of mages in your party!” The elderly man chuckled wryly as he counted the vials and made several tick marks in a small ledger book.

Serena gave an unsure smile as she nodded at the older gentleman, “O...of course. My party. Yes.” Looking up so suddenly, the old man grinned at her, “Hey, I have a proposition for you! I have three flats just like this, except no one will buy them because the potions are too potent! Basically, they came out more than a little alcoholic! Hohoho! My wife was quite sour that no one was… ahem… ‘mage enough’ to handle her so called ‘super’ mana potions. Maybe you can find a use for them? All three flats of twenty potions for half of what you paid for this one. Deal?”

If Serena wasn’t a queen with decades of experience schooling her features in court situations she would have whooped in joy at the prospect of ‘alcoholic’ mana. Instead, she somberly nodded and then quickly paid the merchant’s asking price before her excitement leaked through her mask. Exiting the potion merchant's tent, Serena saw that the bazaar was closing for curfew. So she turned toward the the inn that had been suggested to her by the kind adventurer's who had given her a ride earlier. On her way to find lodging for the night, Serena couldn't help but skip a little. Today had been a good day!